


Asking The Question

by Tomboy13



Series: Butch Kara au [2]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Butch Kara Danvers, Butch au, F/F, Fluff, SO MUCH FLUFF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-04-04 02:16:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14009982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tomboy13/pseuds/Tomboy13
Summary: Kara wants to ask Lena to be her wife.





	Asking The Question

Lena stared at her, eyes unwavering, her expression blank and unnerving. The silence was deafening.  
Kara tried not to look away, even as she was deserted by the steady confidence that had gotten them to this place.  
The blonde swallowed loudly, but it only seemed to reach halfway down her throat before getting stuck.  
Around them lay the remnants of the picnic that Kara had planned so meticulously, and the tee lights flickered in the still air of the empty park. The cicadas were dying down as dusk drifted into night, and from the direction of the waterfront, the sound of music was drifting out from the many bars and restaurants in the marina. The echo of barking laughter from weekend revellers briefly broke the peace.  
“Are you serious?” Lena asked eventually.  
Kara flinched at the hard tone of her voice.  
“Yes. I love you, Lena Luthor, and I want to spend my life with you.” Mustering the last of her hope, Kara lifted her hands that still cradled the small velveteen box she’d been carrying around in her trouser pockets for the last three weeks. Lena prised her green eyes from her lover’s face, and blinked at the small, white gold band, a dainty, square stone winking in the candlelight. “Will you marry me?”

The thought had first occurred to her months earlier.  
It hadn't been a particularly special moment; just a boring Saturday evening on Lena’s sofa, the TV showing some mindless reality show, while Lena tapped away at her laptop, working through the never ending stream of emails that punctuated her working life like heartbeats, and Kara flicked absently through her phone, bare legs tucked under her girlfriend's knees, occasionally reaching over to show a funny video or witty tweet.  
Their lives together were a mesh of these kinds of moments, the dull, nothing moments where they could just quietly enjoy each other's company.  
Kara had stretched slightly, shuffling round until her face pressed against the soft material of the couch cushion. Her eyes had settled thoughtlessly on her lover’s face, calm and smooth in the bright light of the laptop, and that was the moment it hit her.  
This woman was the woman that she wanted to spend her life with.  
At that moment, Kara’s alien heart had swollen painfully with the knowledge that she wanted to wake up every day to see this face, and go to sleep ever night with her arms holding that lovely, soft body. She wanted to dance with Lena on their wedding day, and bicker with her about their first child's name, and protect her as the years lined her face and turned the jet black hair grey.  
It had been at once a revelation, and no surprise at all.  
“What? Have I got something on my face?” Lena asked after a moment of feeling the red hot stare tickling her skin, shifting skittishly.  
Kara chuckled and leaned up on her elbows.  
“Yep. Me.” And with that, she lunged forward, closing the gap and pressing wet, sloppy kisses to the youngest Luthor’s pale cheek.

It had taken two and a half months for Kara to finally feel confident enough to approach Alex.  
Never being 100% sure how the older woman would react to anything, Kara had decided against her usual tack of using the training room at the DEO to discuss important issues, and had instead gone with Noonans, a nice, calming, and, pivotally, public place.  
The agent had just put down their second cup of coffee when it came blurting out.  
“I want to ask Lena to marry me.”  
There was no apparent reaction from Alex, her face falling stony blank and unreadable, but in her right hand, the tea spoon rattled against the side of the coffee cup.  
Kara stared at it as she spoke.  
“I’ve been thinking about it for a while now, and you know, we’ve been together for over two years, I just feel like now is the right time.” Kara continued in the face of her sister’s silence.  
Carefully, Alex placed the spoon on top of her napkin, the coffee foam soaking into the paper.  
“Kara, is that why you wanted to come to Noonans instead of training?”  
Running her hand through her short, unruly hair, down to the scratchy number zero on the back of her skull, Kara started to shake her head.  
Alex raised an eyebrow.  
Lowering her eyes, Kara nodded.  
“Well, I’m offended.” The brunette crossed her arms across her chest. “I don't know why you think I would…over react… to this news. I love Lena. She makes you happy, and she gives as good as she gets. If I'm being honest, I'm amazed it's taken you this long to get the guts up to propose. Now, I've paid $13 for coffee and haven't even been able to hit anything.”  
Kara opened and closed her mouth a few times, before settling on a beaming smile.  
She would never get over how much Alex Danvers could still surprise her.  
“So I know you didn't bring me here to ask for permission.” Alex continued, taking a deep sip of her flat white. “What's the plan?”

The ring had not been as easy as it should have been.  
The problem was, not to put too finer point on it, Kara was butch. Really, really butch. Even when she’d been trying to fit in, she'd chosen more or less at random (much to Cat Grant’s disgust), more often than not choosing colours she liked and hoping to God the outfits matched. And while she knew what she liked to see Lena wearing, faced with the sheer quantity of choice in the field of engagement rings, she was feeling painfully out of her depth.  
Alex hadn't been much help either, spending most of the time criticising the various bands for being too impractical (“how is she meant to throw a punch with that? The stone would break right off on the first hit!”) and looking distinctly uncomfortable as the shop assistant threw in words like ‘solitaire’ and ‘cubic zirconia’.  
In the end, they’d called in reinforcements.  
Sam and Ruby had stood shoulder to shoulder, eyeing the shortlist that Kara had picked out with an unnerving intensity underlined with unreadable non-verbal communication, before selecting a delicate gold band with a single, square cut diamond perched on the top.  
Kara had grinned as she held it, picturing it on Lena’s slender finger, and knowing that it was perfect.  
“No.” Alex said stubbornly, yanking the ring from her sister’s hand and slapping it back on the counter. The cashier blanched. “This one, but in white gold. Yellow is too soft, they need something that's going to last a long time.”  
Sam had sighed dreamily then, and Kara had politely tried to ignore the way the CFO’s eyes lingered on her sister’s face, tracing the contours with adoration.  
Just friends my ass, the butch thought.

A week before D-Day (as Alex and Winn were calling it), and everything was set up.  
The following Saturday, she’d take Lena to Alex’s, ostensibly for the older Danvers to clip her adopted sister’s hair. Then, James would call with a Cat Co emergency that could only be saved by the CEO herself.  
With Lena out of the way, Alex and Kara would be free to arrange an al fresco dinner of all Lena’s favourite foods, to be eaten in Lena’s favourite park, the one that bordered the waterfront with more trees than just about anywhere else in National City. Winn would be on duty to make sure that the picnic was ready and the candles lit for when they arrived, and then it would be all down to Supergirl.  
Kara had planned a stroll down the promenade, hand in hand, before they settled in the bosky gardens to watch the stars rise. She had a speech planned out, a few sentences to try and convey how much her heart longed to join her life to Lena’s, and she had hung in her wardrobe a charcoal grey, double breasted two-piece suit, with white linen shirt and crayon-red skinny tie ready for the event.  
There was just one last thing that Kara needed to do, and it was the one she most dreaded.

Lillian looked at her with uncharacteristically expressive eyes.  
“Have you lost your mind?”  
Getting an interview with one of the most high profile prisoners in one of NC’s top penal facilities hadn't been easy, but Kara had been determined to do things right.  
On Krypton, there would be no need to ask permission of your assigned mate’s family for their hand in marriage, because everything had already been decided, cleanly and practically by a complex algorithm.  
This wasn't Krypton though, and Kara was determined to do everything by the book; she wanted to make sure everything was perfect for Lena, because if it was, maybe that would mean they'd only ever have to do this once.  
“I love your daughter, Ms Luthor.”  
Lillian snorted derisively.  
“I don't care, the answer is no.”  
Kara pursed her lips.  
“Because I'm a woman?”  
Lillian shook her head, a smirk on her lips.  
“Oh my dear, I’m not some Neanderthal. I'm an educated woman, and a scientist, and I know how people are. I couldn't care less that you're a woman, I never had a problem with Lena being bisexual. I don't even care about your social and economic status being so decidedly below our own. I’m not saying ‘no’ because of who you are, or how you are, I’m saying ‘no’,” Lillian hissed, leaning forward, “because of _what you are_.”  
Kara didn't flinch, her blue eyes following the doctor as she leaned back in her chair, and folded her arms nonchalantly over her ribs.  
“Ms Luthor, I think by now I know you a little. You love your children, both of them, in your own way.”  
A flash of fury flared in the matriarch’s grey eyes.  
“I do love them. Everything I've done has been for them, even if they didn't always see it that way.”  
Kara nodded.  
“Then please, I’m asking you to listen to me.” The blonde took a breath, placing both hands flat on the table in front of her. “I _love_ your daughter. I love her to the moon and back. We’ve already been through so much together, and I can't tell you how strong it has made my feelings towards her. I will do anything within my not inconsiderable power to protect your daughter and keep her safe. Lena is the most wonderful woman I've ever met, and I wake up every day unable to believe that she chose to be with me, to love me. She is kind, and strong, and beautiful in every conceivable way and so, so smart. She's also stubborn and proud, and she rushes into danger without even thinking about it, because she thinks it's the right thing to do. I think she got that from you, Ms Luthor.”  
Lillian quirked an eyebrow, looking unimpressed, but waved a hand for the butch to continue.  
“I have no idea why your daughter chose me. But I make her happy. We make each other happy. I need you to understand that I will always support and respect your daughter, because she means the world to me, and thats how she deserves to be treated. I want to do that every day of our lives together, if she’ll let me. I…I want your blessing, not for me, but for Lena. I want to do this right, I don't want Lena to feel like she's missing out on anything just because of who I am, who she is, and who you are.”  
The room was silent for a long while, the only sounds their breathing, and the occasional clink or shuffle as the armed guard changed position.  
Finally, the older woman spoke, her voice steady.  
“You can make her happy?”  
Kara nodded.  
“I do, and I will continue to try to do so for as long as she lets me.”  
Lillian sighed, looking down at her fingernails.  
“Marry her then. But this doesn't change anything between me and the House of El, you tell…Supergirl…that.”  
Kara gave a short, sharp nod, and gestured to the guard.  
Rising to her feet, she said quietly,  
“Thank you, Ms Luthor.”  
There was no answer from the prisoner, only a tight lipped half smile that sent shivers down Kara’s spine.

Everything, on the night had been going to plan.  
The sunset over the ocean had made the perfect back drop to their walk, hands clasped together, stopping for leisurely kisses and sweet, soft words. Lena was still in the work clothes that she’d thrown on to manage Cat Co’s non-existent crisis, a navy blue, tight fitted dress that left her arms bare, and low heels.  
By the time they reached the park, the sun was dipping low in the sky, and Kara had draped her jacket around her woman’s shoulders for warmth.  
When she’d seen the picnic, Lena looked like she was going to cry, or burst with happiness, or maybe both.  
“This is lovely, darling. How did you even manage this?”  
Kara has waggled her eyebrows, tapping the side of her nose, before helping the other woman to slip off her shoes and sit down on the soft wool of the blanket.  
She’d opened the old-fashioned wicker basket, pulling out the thermal dishes of red Thai curry and rice, plates of flat breads and soft cheeses and sliced fruit, a bottle of still cold white wine. Lena’s eyes had gone wide, and she'd launched herself into her girlfriend's arms, sending the thankfully still corked bottle flying as she peppered kisses over Kara’s face, giggling gloriously.  
Finally pulling back, the brunette had looked the hero in the eyes, using the back of her hand to wipe away lipstick residue now plastering the blonde’s tanned cheek.  
“You’re too good to me, Kara Danvers.”

That had been an hour ago. The moon was creeping upwards now, the sky darkening to black, and the silence between them was becoming uncomfortable.  
“Lena?” The butch woman asked, a wobble in her voice.  
“Stand up.”  
Wincing at the harsh tone of voice, Kara pushed to her feet, until she was standing in front of the woman she loved, a heads difference in their height.  
Kara dropped her hands to her sides, sadness bubbling up in her rib cage.  
“Do you realise what you're asking, Kara?” Lena asked, sounding almost angry. “Do you know who I am? What you'd be twinning yourself too? I'm a Luthor, my whole family has dedicated years to making your life hell, and you want to legally tie yourself to that?”  
Kara shrugged.  
“No, I want to legally tie myself to you. You aren't just another Luthor, baby, you're Lena. My Lena.”  
In the half light, Kara could see the CEO’s mouth fall open. Could see the hands that hand been resting on her hips in annoyance drop to her sides.  
“You…you honestly mean that?” Lena asked, uncertainty tinting every word.  
Kara chuckled.  
“Lena, we’ve been together for two years. We’ve been through more than most couples see in a life time, not least around 17 individual assassination attempts and an alien invasion. You helped me accept the person I am, and understand the person I want to be. I know who you are, and I love you because of it. I know you love me too, and I think we could be happy together. Maybe if you take some time to think about it, we can-“  
“I don't need time.” Lena said hurriedly, reaching to grab the woman standing in front of her as if scared the other might disappear. “I’m just scared. Ask me again.”  
Kara studied the face she adored so much for any hint of reluctance, and finding none, stepped forward until their bodies were pressed flush together, and her strong hands were holding the femme’s hips tight to her own, resting on the dimpled flesh of the younger woman's lower back under the borrowed blazer, the ring box still clasped in one hand but otherwise forgotten.  
“Lena Luthor,” Kara began, her voice deep and solemn, “I’ve loved you since I met you, and I will love you until the sky falls in. I never want to be without you. Will you marry me, please?”  
On her chest bone, pressed between their bodies, Lena balled her hands into fists.  
“Yes, of course yes. I love you so much, Kara.”  
The kiss that followed was slow but passionate, tasting of the wine and their mingled tears and hope.  
Around them, the half heard strains of a hundred different musics and the buzzing of crickets made the night air tangible, and above them, the stars of an infinite number of galaxies twinkled on.


End file.
